"Smithers," I said; "there is a selfish callousness about your reply which I do not like. A crisis in the life of another evidently does not move you."
"You can, I presume, pay again?"
"No," I said, "I have an absurd prejudice against paying twice for the same thing; I inherit it from a great-aunt on my mother's side."
"Then you'd better explain to the ticket-collector."
"Explanations are a sign of mental and moral weakness."
"Well, I've nothing more to suggest. You'll have to pay again."
"I shall not pay again," I replied, taking the paper gently from him. "I am a man and an Englishman; and Englishmen are not to be intimidated."
"Do you think," I continued, "that you could hold the collector in conversation while I glide imperceptibly from the precincts of the station?"
"I'm perfectly sure I couldn't."
"I was afraid not," I said sadly; "that would require imagination, tact, pluck, adroitness, in all of which commodities, my dear Smithers——Well, no doubt it's a good thing nature doesn't mould us all alike."